April 2026 Newsletter

Dear Wales Seed Hub community,

Now that the clocks have jumped forward and the days are stretching out, the garden is calling us back. My thoughts are turning toward the summer crops; I’ve already potted on my peppers and tomatoes, though I’m keeping a close eye on the overnight forecast. Even in the greenhouse, they still need a little extra protection when the temperature dips!

Outdoor tomatoes, including the new blight resistant Endurance variety which did very well last year, are a little later than indoor crops, so there’s still time to sow in April. I sow them in a heated propagator to start with, before moving to a sunny windowsill. Next on my list are French beans, which I always start in modules under glass this month to get a head start.

While the veg patches can look a little bare in April, the Purple Sprouting Broccoli is currently in its prime and providing almost daily harvests. To ensure the garden is full of colour later this year, I’m also starting sunflowers, calendula, cosmos, and strawflowers. If you grew our ‘Sunspot’ dwarf sunflowers last year, I’d love to see your photos!

Chris Vernon
Wales Seed Hub Director

More about Chris…

Chris Vernon is a founding member and a director at the Wales Seed Hub. He’s been producing seed commercially for six years and saving for many more. Based in Carmarthenshire, he now grows around 20 varieties of vegetables and flowers for seed on his family smallholding as well as produce for the kitchen. You can find out more about Chris in this month’s ‘Meet the Grower’ Instagram post here, and browse his seeds on the website here.

Knowing when to sow:
Smooth Peas vs Wrinkled Peas

Peas come in two main types when it comes to sowing, smooth and wrinkled – this refers to the shape of the dried pea, so it’s quite easy to tell the difference. Smooth pea varieties are hardier, albeit starchier and less flavoursome, and are better if you want to do a really early sowing in February – March. Wrinkled peas on the other hand, tend to be sweeter but are less hardy and more vulnerable to cold and damp. As the days and nights start getting warmer this month, now is a great time to start planting wrinkled pea varieties like Gladstone, Harold Idle, Llanover and May Queen (see below).

If the soil is warm and not too wet it is possible to sow peas outdoors. But, you do run the risk of them either rotting if conditions aren’t quite right yet, or having them snapped up by rodents – who seem to love the seeds!

Alternatively – and probably preferably for a better shot at successful germination – you can sow indoors in modules in some seed compost (making sure to cover them if there are mice around!), before hardening off and planting out when they’re about 6” tall.

Either way, make sure you dig in plenty of organic matter initially, and water regularly throughout the season. Tall peas will need support, such as pea netting, chicken wire or canes to scramble up, and make sure it’s sturdy, as they can get quite heavy towards the middle of the season – they may even need tying in if they get a bit unruly. For shorter varieties, but just some twiggy sticks should be fine. For an ongoing crop throughout the season, you can sow successionally, but if you pick the pods regularly the plants will keep producing.

Harold Idle Pea
Grower: Chris

A tall and vigorous English heritage variety which eaches heights of 2m (6ft) and requires sturdy support. In return, it rewards you with a bumper crop of large, handsome pods, each packed with 9–10 sweet, succulent peas.

Gladstone Pea
Grower: Peni

Known to be hardy and reliable, ‘Gladstone’ shows signs of real drought resistance, with no signs of mildew. It yields large quantities of plump sweet peas, that be can be eaten fresh as a garden pea or great for freezing or drying.

Llanover Pea
Grower: Sue

An exceptionally good Welsh heritage variety. The vigorous plants produce plentiful plump pods of unusually large peas, which are sweet and delicious. The plants grow to around 1.5m tall and so need strong supports.

May Queen Pea
Grower: Maggie

This tasty and productive pea grows fairly tall – around 1.5 m and so will need strong support to grow well. It is a particularly early round seeded variety and can be sown from early March until mid May.

Shop All Peas

Other seeds to sow this month

Boltardy Beetroot
Grower: Chris

April is a good time to start direct sowing root vegetables like this fantastic Boltardy Beetroot. This variety is well known for its reliable and consistent performance and resistance to bolting. Whether roasted whole, pickled for winter, or grated raw into salads, this is the ultimate dependable crop for any vegetable patch.

Welsh Onion
Grower: Moo

Like most alliums, these Welsh Bunching Onions can be sown both indoors and out during the spring (early spring for indoor sowing, and mid to late spring when the soil’s warmed up for outdoor sowing). A useful addition to the veg plot, this perennial ‘bunching’ onion stays green through the winter, so can be eaten all year round.

Crystal Lemon Cucumber
Grower: Simon

This Crystal Lemon cucumber can be sown late April-early May with protection at 20°C+, and then grown on in larger pots until ready to plant outdoors, well after the last frost. It’s a hardy variety which is perfect for growing outdoors, and has a delicious crisp crunchy texture and a a size which makes it ideal for packed lunches.

Red Oakleaf Lettuce
Grower: Lauren

It’s time to start succession planting lettuces and salad leavs, and this Red Oakleaf is a beautifully attractive lettuce with a delicious sweet flavour. It begins a mottled green and will become a deeper red in full sun. You can harvest as baby leaves, ‘cut and come again’ or as full sized heads.

Wales Seed Hub member Maggie on Gardener’s World

Lockdown was an extremely difficult time for many, but it was also a time which sparked new projects and programmes rooted in resilience and community solidarity. One such example was the ‘Incredible Seed Library’, set up by Wales Seed Hub member Maggie in Carmarthenshire as a way to share seeds within her local community and increase local food resilience. Last summer Maggie was filmed by BBC Gardener’s World, and the episode was aired last Friday March 27th. Well done Maggie for getting the word out there, and all the hard work you do to promote seed sovereignty. If you missed the episode, don’t forget to watch it back on iPlayer via the link below.

Watch it back